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Sunday, July 24, 2016

Watching Pre-DNC Convention Coverage Today...

...really hoping a week of screaming Bernie assholes isn't what we get after a week of screaming Trump assholes.

Adding: While there is major, maybe even perfect overlap between Trump support and assholery, it is obviously true that most Bernie supporters are not screaming assholes at all, very much to the contrary: Through the primaries the overwhelming majority of actual Democrats always approved HRC even when they preferred Bernie or his framing of the issues. But a minute minority of Bernie's noisemakers have been talking trash online, disrupting events, shouting down speech for months. Am hoping the DNC will be hopeful and helpful and professional after the darkness and vulgarity and know-nothingness of last week's RNC to prepare the way for the greatest possible victory for Democrats up and down the ticket. The loud impotent few who just want to Bern It Down are assholes and always were.

Six weeks before the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks publishedan archive of hacked Democratic National Committee emails aheadof the Democratic convention, the organization’s founder, Julian Assange,foreshadowed the release — and made it clear that he hoped to harmHillary Clinton’s chances of winning the presidency.

Mr. Assange’s remarks in a June 12 interview underscored thatfor all the drama of the discord that the disclosures have sownamong supporters of Bernie Sanders — and of the unproven speculationthat the Russian government provided the hacked data to WikiLeaksin order to help Donald J. Trump — the disclosures are also thelatest chapter in the long-running tale of Mr. Assange’s battleswith the Obama administration.

In the interview, Mr. Assange. . . suggested that he not onlyopposed her candidacy on policy grounds, but also saw her asa personal foe.

At one pointer [the interviewer asked] "Would you prefer Trumpto be president?”

Mr. Assange replied that what Mr. Trump would do as president was“completely unpredictable.” By contrast, he thought it waspredictable that Mrs. Clinton would wield power in two wayshe found problematic. . .

“We do see her as a bit of a problem for freedom of the pressmore generally,” Mr. Assange said. . .

“She has a long history of being a liberal war hawk, and we presumeshe is going to proceed” with that approach if elected president,he said. . .====